Finding Dragons
by hermionespolyjuice
Summary: Hermione needs to get away from a desk job and what seemed better than dragon taming in Romania? What she didn't realise was that working at the Balaur Reserve was so much more than just taming dragons, finding love included.
1. Chapter 1 - Eilidh

**Got a new Charlie/Hermione story for you. You may recognise it cos I had it up but then I deleted it as I hadn't updates it in so long but here we go again, I have made a few changes to the chapter! I hope to update once a week or so, I've only written the first 5 chapters and want to try and stay 4-5 chapters ahead so you're not waiting for crazy amounts of time for updates. Anyway, enough rambling, I hope you enjoy this story and please do leave a review, I always appreciate every single one of them and if you have any ideas of what you want to happen just let me know please!**

 **\- HermionesPolyjuice**

 **DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with it and wouldn't dare take away anything that JK Rowling has brought into our world. That being said, Dobby did not need to die.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1 - Eilidh**

"Have a fabulous time."

"I will. Don't screw too many boys," she responded with a laugh. She grabbed onto her suitcase and flung her backpack over her shoulder before touching the brightly glowing, chipped teacup with her pinky. She cast one more look over her office and smiled at her best friend at work, Lucy, before feeling the distinctive jerk from behind the navel and she was squeezed into darkness. The very uncomfortable feeling of portkey travel lasted much longer than normal and she was beginning to feel very sick.

She landed with a thud on a cool, stone floor and immediately threw up.

"You're not the first to feel the effects of inter-country travel," a kind sounding voice came from above her as she felt a hand stroke her back. Wiping her mouth she stood up and took out her wand from her jeans pocket.

"Evanesco," she muttered clearing away her vomit very embarrassed by the situation. "I am so sorry about that, portkeys are not normally an issue for me." Her face grew redder as she turned to face the slightly elderly man standing behind her. He chuckled.

"Don't apologise. Like I said everyone tends to be sick after their first travel," his dark green eyes twinkled as he smiled broadly down at her, the creases in his face reminding her of her grandfather.

"John McCusker, Head of the Romanian Reserve, nice to meet you," he said holding out his hand.

"Hermione Granger, nice to meet you too," Hermione said shaking the older man's hand.

"Welcome to Romania. We have just a few technicalities to go though first before I can take you to the reserve," John said and with a quick wave of his wand the black suitcase disappeared.

"I've sent it ahead to the reserve, it'll be there when we arrive," he told Hermione as she looked somewhat confused.

Hermione was finally allowed to take in her surroundings. She was standing in the middle of a very large hall, with many small offices leading off each side. The ceiling was relatively low but made of glass so the hot summer, Romanian sun streamed into the room lightening it up. Despite being able to feel the heat of the sun beat down on her, Hermione still felt relatively cool. Magic was a wonderful thing.

John led Hermione down the hall and headed into an office on the left side. Hermione followed him and was amazed at the sight of the office. Despite seeming small from the outside, it was incredibly large on the inside, the ceiling also made from glass. A large, marble desk sat in the far corner facing the ceiling to floor window. Hermione caught sight of stretches of fields, forest and even the mountains in the distance. Her heart began to flutter as she thought about her new job at the dragon reserve.

"I've been waiting for you," a voice wafted from the corner. Hermione's head spun around to see a young looking man, probably not even in his 30s reclining on an emerald green sofa. He stood up and walked over to them. Hermione took in his appearance as he made the few steps over towards her and John. He was tall with a muscular build and very tanned. He was wearing a pair of shorts and a blue polo shirt, not very official looking despite them being in the Romanian ministry. At least Hermione figured they were at the Romanian ministry. He had a mop of messy brown hair and kind looking amber coloured eyes.

"Kieran Hurd at your service, welcome to Romania, Miss Granger," he said with a smile, showing off very straight, very white teeth, sticking out his hand for Hermione to take.

"Pleased to meet you Mr. Hurd," she replied as they shook hands.

"Please, call me Kieran. I may be a ministry official, but I'm way too young to be called Mr," Kieran said with a laugh. Hermione smiled back at him. "Right, so just a few pieces of paperwork to be completed before you can start work." Kieran headed over to his desk and gestured Hermione to follow.

"I'll be waiting for you outside," John said quietly to Hermione, who nodded to acknowledge she had heard. Hermione followed Kieran over to the desk and sat down in the leather armchair next to it.

"Firstly, I need you to fill out this Wand Registration Form. Any witch or wizard who comes to Romania must have their wand registered, and tracked –"

"Tracked?" Hermione asked with a gulp.

"More so we know where they are and magic isn't being used in the proximity of muggles. Oh and so we can expel anyone who begins to use dark magic," Kieran added with a slight chuckle. Hermione, however, couldn't quite see the funny side.

"And you've had to expel people from the country before?" she asked timidly.

"Only a few but that was years ago so nothing to be worried about," Kieran replied with a smile as he handed her a rolled up piece of parchment, "If you could just start filling this out while I find the other forms I've gone and put down somewhere."

* * *

40 minutes later, Hermione re-emerged from Kieran's office somewhat exhausted. She had had to fill out form after form detailing every tiny thing about her, her past and her new job – she felt like she had been writing an autobiography in the shape of forms.

"All done? You are probably the quickest employee to have finished that process; there was one who made me wait for over 2 and a half hours as he completed it all. Who was it? Oh yes, Charlie Weasley, how could I have forgotten?" John rambled on. Hermione's ears started when she heard the all too familiar name of Weasley. How could she have been so silly? Of course, Charlie was out here. She knew he worked out in Romania and yet during the past months leading up to her departure she hadn't even twigged she would be working with him.

"Charlie?" Hermione questioned curiously.

"Ah yes, thought you may have heard of him. When he arrived, what about 10 years ago, straight out of a year of training he had no clue how to fill out any bloody form or any bloody paperwork. He would arrive for rounds in the morning looking exhausted. It took us a while to find out he had been up all night, every night trying to work out how to do his ruddy paperwork. We all thought he had been busy with something else," John's eyes sparkled with amusement as he said the last comment. "He learnt though, he was the best learner we'd had in a while. And now I reckon he's the best dragon tamer on this reserve, and probably in the world." John was now leading Hermione out of the hallway and into the Romanian air.

She couldn't help but let out a slight gasp as she took in the scenery. Bright green, rolling hills spread for miles in front of her leading into a large mountain range atop with snow despite it being the height of summer. To her left a huge forest also ran for miles, thick green trees rising high into the clear blue sky. To the right she spotted a small town, consisting of old buildings made of light stone that caught the sunlight perfectly. A small church rose up in the middle and Hermione imagined a town square filled with bustling people going about their business among market stalls and bars. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

"You like it?" John asked after he noticed Hermione had stopped walking. She nodded.

"It's stunning," she replied simply.

"I just need to pick up something in the village and then I'll take you to the reserve."

* * *

"Welcome to the Balaur Reserve," John said as they landed with a pop outside a large, white tent. Hermione looked around. There wasn't much to see besides the large tent and s few trees, but she could hear the distinctive sound of a dragon breathing fire and her heart began to race with excitement. She was finally here. After months of planning, decisions and mind changing she was finally in Romania, where she had wanted to be for far too long. Excitement was turning into an understatement. "You can't see much from here but I'll let these two dashing gentlemen to show you around and introduce you to everyone and tell you how everything works around here. Goodbye, Hermione. See you tomorrow on your first day."

"Thank you, John. See you tomorrow," Hermione said kindly watching the older man head in the opposite direction from the main tent to a small hut she presumed was his office.

"Fancy seeing you here," a familiar voice wafted from behind her. She spun around to see two men behind her. The shorter one was easily recognisable from a mile away with his flaming red hair pulled back into a ponytail. He was wearing a plain grey t-shirt with a pair of khaki trousers tucked into big, brown boots. His friend was slightly taller and lankier, his muscles, although very obvious, much less toned and large as Charlie's. His mop of brown hair was kept rather untidily and Hermione was convinced she spotted some old twigs and leaves sticking out.

"Charlie!" Hermione said excitedly. He took the few steps over to her and wrapped his arms tightly and swung her around as if she were a young child.

"It's been such a long time," he said as he put her back on her feet.

"I know, what over three years ago?" Charlie smiled at their last encounter, mere weeks after the Battle of Hogwarts, when her family had been invited over to Sunday lunch with the Weasleys. What a day that had been. Full of laughter and excitement, Fred had been released from St. Mungo's only a few days before and Percy had just resigned. The mood in the wizarding world was so light-hearted and that day had just been perfect.

"Ugh, don't. I can't believe how fast these past years have gone. I'm getting so old," she said with a sigh.

"Old? You? Never, you're not even, what, 22 yet? Just wait till you're 29 and nearly 30, then you can start feeling old," Charlie said, his face going at little pale as he recalled how close to 30 he was. Hermione smiled at him. There was cough from behind them making Charlie jump.

"Right, yes. Hermione, this is Jack. He was in my year in Ravenclaw and I managed to persuade him to go into dragon taming. Took him a few more years to be convinced Romania was the place to be though," Charlie finished with a laugh.

"Hello, Hermione. How are you? I've heard a fair amount about you," Jack said, his thick accent very identifiable as Scottish. Hermione's heart skipped a bit. _He'd heard about me? From Charlie? What had he meant? What did he know about me?_

"Nice to meet you Jack, hope it's only been good things," Hermione responded, her cheeks blushing somewhat. Jack let out a deep laugh.

"Only the best," he said with a wink, making Hermione's cheeks go even redder.

"Right, Miss Granger, on with your tour I think. Let's show you your yurt I first," Charlie said.

"Yurt?" Hermione questioned as Charlie and Jack led her away from the main tent down the path.

"It's where you'll live. They're not overly large, but are very comfortable. Every employee has their own, so there are about 30 or so and they're about 15 minutes from the main tents and enclosures," Charlie replied as they continued down the path, which was lined with trees.

"They're Romanian Apple Trees, the most delicious apples you'll find. Here try one," Jack noticed Hermione looking at the odd shaped trees and picked an apple from one of the branches and passed it to her. She took it gratefully only realising now how hungry she was feeling, and took a bite from the shiny green fruit.

"I see what you mean, they are truly delicious," Hermione said as she took another bite.

"They're a great snack on the way to work in the morning," Charlie added. "Right, the yurts are all down the left here." They turned down a rocky path, now lined with Romanian Pear Trees. They walked for a few minutes until the yurts came into view.

"That one's mine," Charlie said as he pointed to the second on the right, the front door painted an emerald green.

"My one's the orange one just over there," Jack said pointing to a yurt on the left.

"And yours is just a bit further down here." Charlie led them down the path before indicating a yurt, whose front door was painted a deep teal.

"Teal, my favourite colour!" Hermione exclaimed. She heard the two guys laugh behind her.

"Yes, they're all painted to the employee's favourite colour. Don't ask me how, that's way too complicated for my small brain," Charlie explained. He handed Hermione a silver key, "We like to keep a few muggle things around here," he added with a smirk.

"I'll just go chuck my bag inside. I'd much rather see the reserve," Hermione said and she hurried towards the front door and unlocked it. Without even looking inside she threw her backpack onto the sofa and headed back out to Charlie and Jack, who were both happily munching on pears.

"Right, to the main tents now," Jack announced and they headed back the way they had come.

* * *

"So this is the medi-tent, fairly obvious and not too exciting, although you will definitely become quite acquainted with it and the medi-witches," Charlie said with a laugh.

"Yeah, I reckon I'm in here probably every other day or so because of something or other," Jack agreed. Hermione felt a little worried at that comment. She knew dragon taming wasn't the safest of jobs but she wasn't expecting to have to visit the medi-tent quite that often.

"Not all tamers end up that often though," Charlie added upon catching sight of the worry in Hermione's face. "Jack's just incapable of applying burn lotion and taking pain potions so has to go there for every tiny cut. I think he went once because of a papercut." Hermione let out a laugh as she saw Jack's face go bright red.

"That's not true," Jack said with a huff, folding his arms across his chest.

"He also has a bit of crush on one of the medi-witches but refuses to admit it," Charlie added with a whisper in Hermione's ear. His breath tickled her ear and she couldn't help the shiver that spread down her spine from it. She felt rather than saw Charlie smirk as he took a step away and turned more professional.

"Right, so that's all the boring stuff. Now we can show you the enclosures. We will need to be quick, however, before we get told off for interrupting feeding," Charlie added and he led her through the back of the medi-tent. Hermione almost shouted in surprise. In front of her was hundreds and thousands of acres spread out in front of her.

"So, here are the dragons. This will be where you will be situated the most. The area is split into various smaller areas for different species, with climate of each section suitable for that specie. You'll quickly learn where each dragon lives," Charlie explained.

"Each enclosure is surrounded by protective charms so the dragons can't escape into other ones," Jack added.

"Right, so the best way to see the entire enclosure is from up there," Charlie pointed to the sky. Hermione gulped.

"Um…you know what. I think I'm OK. I'm sure I can picture it," Hermione stuttered.

"Trust me you can't picture it until you've seen it. It's one of the best sights," Jack said.

"I…I…um…can't really…um…I guess what I'm trying to say…is that…um…I'm scared of heights," Hermione muttered to the ground, her cheeks turning pink with embarrassment. Jack snorted but when Hermione looked up she saw Charlie looking at her, his face completely unreadable.

"What?" she asked timidly looking straight into Charlie's dark brown eyes.

"Oh, nothing, I was just thinking," Charlie stammered but Hermione knew he wasn't being entirely truthful. An awkward silence filled the air between the three of them, causing Hermione to fiddle with a stray curl, something she did when she was nervous.

Thankfully, the silence was broken only a few minutes alter but a loud bell.

"Feeding time!" Charlie exclaimed, his eyes twinkling in the dusk. Hermione looked up excitedly.

"Do…do I get to watch?" she asked.

"Of course, you'll need to know what happens for tomorrow," Charlie said.

"Tomorrow?" Hermione enquired.

"Yes, tomorrow. You'll officially be a dragon tamer on the Balaur Reserve this time tomorrow and will need to help," Charlie told her. He wrapped his arm around Hermione's shoulders and led her slightly out of the way.

"I had better help, I am actually officially on duty," Jack muttered and he ran off into the tent to help the other employees.

"Are you not on duty?" Hermione asked Charlie as she waited eagerly for the feeding to begin.

"No, not this afternoon," he said, smiling down at her. A few moments later about 15 dragon tamers emerged from the tent carrying large baskets, filled with what Hermione assumed to be old carcasses.

"Each dragon has their favourite meat and needs to be placed in a certain area of their enclosure. Don't ask why, it's the one thing I don't quite understand about dragons," Charlie explained.

"So which dragon is in this enclosure?" Hermione asked nodding towards the one straight ahead of them.

"That belongs to the Regal Copper. She's expecting to lay an egg in the coming weeks so we have her in this enclosure so it's easier to check on her. We switch around the closures if a dragon is expecting to lay an egg or if they're sick or something so it's easier to keep an eye on them than having to trek or fly a few miles every hour to check on them," Charlie clarified upon seeing confusion etched across Hermione's face.

"That's quite clever, actually," Hermione said approvingly.

"Why such a tone of surprise?" Charlie asked, which to his surprise caused Hermione to flinch.

"You alright?" he asked, unsure about what just happened.

"Yes, fine. It's just Ron always used to say that," Hermione said and Charlie nodded in understanding. He had heard about Ron and Hermione's break-up. Their relationship had only lasted about six months and culminated in Ron completely losing it and kicking Hermione out of their small apartment. Fortunately, for the Weasley family and Hermione's sake they had managed to make it up a while later and had remained good friends since but every now and again thoughts of Ron sent shivers down Hermione's spin.

"Look, here they go," Charlie said excitedly pointing towards the Regal Copper's enclosure where two men had just entered carrying a carcass between them that looked distinctively like

"Horse? That's her meat of choice?" Hermione said surprised. Charlie laughed. "And she eats the bones and everything?"

"Yes, surely you would know that with all your training?" Charlie asked, surprised at the question.

"They didn't really go into fine details like that if I'm honest," Hermione admitted as she watched the men carefully place the meat under a large oak tree. They carefully arranged it so it faced the smaller oak tree opposite it before slowly backing out of the enclosure.

"Any second now," Charlie whispered his eyes locked on the large canopy of trees. "There!" Hermione squinted her eyes and saw some movement in the distance. Slowly a large dragon came into view and Hermione was struck with amazement. She'd seen photos after photos of dragons during her training but never a live one and she was mesmerised. Hermione knew this particular dragon wasn't the biggest of breeds but she wasn't any less spectacular. She was a beautiful coppery colour, hence the breed's name, that caught the setting sun and shone brightly. Her underbelly was a lighter pink dotted with silver with the silver speckling across her entire body. Her eyes were large and green, contrasting beautifully with the copper colour of her body. As she spread her wings Hermione gasped at the beauty of the dragon. Charlie couldn't help glance down at her now co-worker and smiled at the sight of Hermione's face and the love that filled her eyes.

"She's beautiful isn't she?" he whispered quietly. Hermione couldn't manage any words and just nodded her head, not taking her eyes off the beautiful dragon. The dragon flapped its wings, but never took off, as she walked towards the meat. Once she reached it she sank onto her legs and began gnawing at the meat. It took Hermione by surprise at how much she admired the dragon and wasn't in the least bit surprised by the actions as she heard the cracking of bones.

"What's her name?" she asked Charlie, still not taking her eyes off the stunning beast in front of her.

"Eilidh," Charlie replied simply.

"It suits her. Why such a Scottish name?"

"We found her in the Shetland Islands. Dragon poachers had caught her but we rescued her and brought her back over here. We were going to release her back into the wild but she was so accustomed to it here that when we went to release her she refused so she's been here ever since," Charlie told her. "She was one of the first dragons I ever rescued, I've got a bit of a soft sport for her."

"I can see why, she's beautiful," Hermione murmured. With one last gulp, the carcass had gone and Eilidh let off a satisfied jet of flames. Despite knowing there were protective walls between her and the dragon Hermione couldn't help but take a few steps back in surprise. She heard a slight chuckle come from Charlie's mouth, which was followed by a loud rumble from his stomach.

"Hungry are we?" Hermione teased.

"You bet. Think I might have to go back and have my leftover chicken salad," he groaned, wrinkling his face at the thought of salad being his meal.

"You are such a Weasley, food is always your primary thought in life," Hermione laughed.

"Look, a man cannot be satisfied with a bit of leaves and a piece of chicken," Charlie said indignantly. Hermione laughed and disagreed.

"My mum gave me a lasagne to bring over but she decided to make one big enough for about 5 people, how about you come over and have some? Then you can tell me more stories about the dragons and get me ready for my first day tomorrow," Hermione suggested.

"Now that is a meal I can get behind," Charlie replied with a large grin.

"Perfect, just depends whether you can wait long enough for it to heat up," Hermione said with a smirk as they turned around and headed back through the medi-tent.

"You know there is such thing as magic that would get that done much quicker," Charlie teased.

"Yes, but I couldn't dare ruin my mother's cooking with magic, got to do it the traditional way," Hermione said. Charlie rolled his eyes but followed her back towards the yurts nonetheless.

* * *

"Please pass on my compliments to the chef, that was absolutely delicious," Charlie said as he leant back against his chair and patted his stomach. He had just demolished over half of the lasagne himself, something that Hermione was both surprised about and yet not at all.

"I shall do. Would you like any dessert? I think I saw she packed a lemon cheesecake," Hermione said as she sent the dishes to be washed up in the sink.

"Hmmm, that would be lovely but I can't think I could eat any more." Hermione's mouth gaped open, not for the first time that day.

"You've got to be joking!" she said totally surprised. "Never has a Weasley turned down some dessert."

"Oh, alright then. I guess I couldn't be the first," Charlie said reluctantly.

"That's more like a Weasley attitude," Hermione responded with a laugh as she headed back to the kitchen counter to cut two slices of lemon cheesecake.

"Bloody hell. Your mum definitely gives my one a run for her money. I've never tasted food as good as my mum's but this is delicious," Charlie said after stuffing a rather large piece of dessert into his mouth.

"I shall let her know in my next letter," Hermione said as she too placed a rather large piece of cheesecake in her mouth.

"Tell me more about the dragons," Hermione said once she had cleared away their plates and placed glasses of Butterbeer in front of them both.

"There's not really anything new that you won't learn whilst you're out here and I don't really want to tell you everything now so you can't enjoy some fun tales over the next few months," Charlie said, much to Hermione's disappointment.

"Fine, surely you can tell me about the people. Jack seemed really nice, as did John as a matter of fact," Hermione said imploringly. However, to Hermione's great surprise Charlie started and shook his head. She eyed him suspiciously.

"The first thing you should learn his is that you should not trust John-"

"What? Why?" Hermione interrupted before Charlie could say any more.

"He's a total arse when you get to know him. He always tries to get you onto his side when you first meet by making you think he's really nice and friendly and such. But he's not. He doesn't like dragons at all and we know for a fact he never sends off any of our requests to the Ministry or anything. This place is getting worse by the day. Please, Hermione, don't trust him. It'll all make sense soon, I'm sure," Charlie explained grimly, his face serious. But it seemed to Hermione that Charlie was missing something out and not telling her everything. She didn't push it, however, but couldn't help thinking about it as she tossed and turned that night trying to sleep. Her brain wasn't having it though and she found herself reading for most of the night.

* * *

 **A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, don't forget to leave any thoughts (good & bad) in a review 3**


	2. Chapter 2 - Feeding

**Chapter 2 - enjoy :) and please please leave a review, it would be hugely appreciated!**

 **-HermionesPolyjuice**

* * *

 **Chapter 2 – Feeding**

Hermione awoke early the next morning, buzzing with excitement at the thought of her first day in her new job. She rolled over onto her back and lay there for a while, staring up at the ceiling that she had enchanted to have dragons fly around pondering over what Charlie had said to her the night before about John and the rest of the management team, it really seemed like there was an issue and something needed to change soon. Sighing, she picked up her wand and with a lazy flick turned on the wireless she had brought out with her from home. With a bit of fiddling last night she had even managed to connect it up to some muggle radio stations back in the UK. She smiled to herself as the distinctive beginning of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony started to sound through the house. She turned it up with another flick, not thinking about quite how loud it was at such an early hour. She kicked her legs off the small single bed she sat up, rubbing her eyes.

Charlie had told her she was free to do whatever she wanted with the furniture so she'd had a play around once he had left the evening before. She had made the double bed a bit smaller and covered the headboard with twinkling fairy lights. She got rid of the ensuite bathroom, electing to have just the 1 across the hall so she could expand her bedroom with much more space. She had placed large, old wooden desk under the window and a big teal beanbag in the other corner to match her teal bed covers. Admiring her work from last night she grabbed a towel and headed for the shower, humming to herself quietly.

An hour later, Hermione found herself pulling on her boots over a pair of grey trousers she had paired with a loose-fitting navy t-shirt. She grabbed her wand and her keys and left her little yurt she now called home, thinking she needed to sort out the living room and kitchen when she got back home after work that night.

On the way down the path she remembered what Charlie had said the day previously about the apples being a good morning snack so she picked one off a low branch and took a bite, it was just a good as the ones yesterday. As she walked through the trees, that shaded her from summers' sun that already felt incredibly hot for such an early hour, she started humming to herself absentmindedly and drifted off into her own little world.

"That'll be Vivaldi's Four Seasons," a voice came from behind Hermione making her jump almost a foot in the air. She had got completely distracted and hadn't even heard the footsteps from behind her or noticed quite how loud she was humming to herself.

"I'm thinking Summer but it could be the end of the Spring's Allegro in E major," the voice finished. Hermione turned around to see Charlie walking just a few steps behind her smiling, his eyes twinkling in the morning light. She could help but smile back at him.

"Summer would be correct, which one though?" she asked eagerly waiting for him to reach her side, impressed that he knew all this.

"Adagio in G minor, but that was an easy question," he replied as he reached for an apple from the tree next to him and took a bite.

"OK, what's this one then?" Hermione asked and she began to hum another tune. Charlie looked down at her and screwed up his face in thought.

"Very distinctively Handel. And definitely from his Water Music," he said thoughtfully. Hermione nodded next to him but didn't stop, obviously telling him she needed the rest.

"Hmm…I want to say Air…in F major," he said a little while later. Hermione grinned.

"Wow, you're good. How do you know all of this?" she asked very impressed at his knowledge, he wasn't someone she thought would be so fond of classical music. "I don't think I know anyone who knows their classical music as much as I do."

"Someone I dated during my final year at Hogwarts and for about four months after was very into her classical music and she took me to lots of concerts and I kind of fell in love with it, more so with classic music than with her. I have hundreds of those CD things you muggles have and listen to them the entire time," Charlie explained, the tips of his ears going ever so slightly pink.

"It's refreshing to know their music is being listened in the wizarding world."

"Mum loves it but she knew none of us did so never listened to it when we were around. I assume Dad took her to some muggle thing or something," Charlie added with a laugh. By now they had reached the main tent and it was now 7:25, only 5 minutes before Hermione would officially start her new job. She was beginning to feel nerves fly around her stomach in addition to the excitement, all her emotions were beginning to make her feel a bit sick. _Just don't be sick. You can't throw up before you've even started your first day. There's no reason to be sick. Hold it together Granger._

"I guess I'll see you around for lunch, have a good morning and try not to get onto anyone's bad side," Charlie said with a smile as he gave her a quick hug and a wink. She waited a few seconds to compose herself after Charlie had walked into the main tent before following him.

"Hermione Granger! Hi, so nice to have you as apart of the team, especially to have a female. Not something we see around here very often," a young male with short spiky blonde hair and piercing blue eyes said rather energetically for so early in the morning as she walked into the main area. "I'm Dan by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Dan," Hermione said smiling back at the young man.

"I'm basically going to be the one who you report to and I'll be telling you what you're doing and who you're partnered with etc," he told her. "Now if you'd like to follow me, I shall introduce you to everyone before they go on their rounds and we can get your hands muddy. I don't mean that literally of course," he added with a laugh that made Hermione cringe. He led her through the main tent and into the feeding tent, where the dragon tamers were all ready to get on with their days work. Dan cleared his throat, much louder than was probably necessary and everyone stopped talking to turn around to face him.

"Morning all. I just wanted to introduce you to our newest member of the team, Hermione Granger. I am sure you've all heard of her but don't go too easy on her, no doubt she'll show most of us up by the end of the week," Dan announced to the room. There was a round of applause and some laughter; Hermione felt her cheeks blush.

"Hermione, this is everyone. Jack, Charlie, Thomas, Ralph, Will, Matthew, Emilia, Sam, Zack, Oliver, Kieran, Lloyd, Chris and Ben. The others were on-call last night and will all be in bed and I think a few are on holiday or in the medi-tent but no doubt you'll meet them over the coming days." As Dan introduced them all they each gave a wave and a smile. "You'll fit right in and definitely feel like a part of the family in no time." Everyone dispersed into their small groups and began talking, not before Hermione caught a certain red-head's eye, who winked at her awakening the butterflies in her stomach, not for the first time since she had arrived in Romania.

"OK Hermione. So we're going to start you off with nothing too strenuous today, don't want you to not want to come back tomorrow," Dan said with a laugh. Hermione was beginning to find him a little bit annoying, he did make quite a few comments that seemed unnecessary and somewhat condescending, but she shouldn't form opinions quite yet.

"Right, what do you want me to do?" she asked.

"It's coming up to feeding time and there's one tamer who goes around each pen in turn with those who are actually doing the feeding to assist. They basically allow them to enter the enclosures by briefly counteracting the protective charms and then reinforcing them afterwards and are on standby in case they need some help. As you're so talented with a wand, we figured that would be a good job to begin with as will definitely require the nerves to be kept in check as well as allowing you to get relatively up close with the dragons, does that sound OK?" Dan asked, as he turned around to face her.

"That sounds great," Hermione replied, her eyes sparkling with excitement of actually being able to go up close to the dragons so early on. She had been expecting to do some boring admin or behind the scenes kind of work, nothing actually near the dragons and this excited her.

"Perfect, let me teach you the spells first then while the others complete rounds," and Dan led her out the back away from the commotion.

* * *

Half an hour later, Hermione found herself standing outside the Regal Copper's enclosure, her hands shaking with nerves. _What if she didn't perform the spell correctly and it didn't work? What if something went wrong? How would she know what to do?_ Hundreds of worrying thoughts flooded through her mind as she stood there, waiting for the first tamers to head over with the horse carcass for Eilidh. She clenched her hands into tight fists in an attempt to stop them from shaking and tried to take in deep, calming breaths.

"You'll be absolutely fine. Eilidh is the perfect dragon to have your first encounter with, I promise," a soft, recognisable voice whispered in her ear. Hermione once again almost jumped a foot in the air, not expecting someone to creep up on her like that. She heard Charlie chuckle as he walked off telling her he would be waiting for her at the Romanian Silverwing's enclosure.

"Morning Hermione, I gather you're helping us feed our beautiful Eilidh this morning." Hermione turned around to see Emilia; the only other female dragon tamer on the reserve and a guy who she thought may have been Lloyd but couldn't quite remember.

"Yes…yes I am," Hermione stuttered.

"Don't be nervous. I promise you Eilidh is the gentlest dragon we have and the best one to start with. I remember on my first day and I think I had already thrown up twice by this time, sick with nerves so you're doing one up on me. And I won't even tell you how much better you're doing than Mia was back when she started a few years ago," the guy said, receiving a friendly punch from Mia. The look they shared told Hermione that these two were most certainly a couple, and a couple madly in love at that.

"Ignore, Lloyd. He's completely downplaying what happened. But we'll tell you all later, maybe after you've finished your first job," Mia said with a laugh. Lloyd rolled his dark brown eyes and Hermione couldn't help but think that Mia had been very lucky with the best looking tamer she'd met so far, apart from Charlie of course. A few butterflies took off when she thought of Charlie but she couldn't work out whether it was because of Charlie or from the nerves at what she was about to do.

"Right, lets get going before we get shouted at given that half of the other dragons can't get fed until you're done here," Lloyd said and together the three of them walked up to where the protective charms were. Hermione was a little confused at why only half of the dragons were getting fed at this time but she didn't question it, there was obviously a perfectly good reason for it but she would be interested to find it out. Up close, Hermione could see exactly where the protective wards were as a slight shimmer was caught in the morning sun.

"When you're ready Hermione, cast that spell," Mia said not taking her eyes off the place by the oak tree exactly where the meat was to be laid. Hermione took one last deep breath and raised her wand, ignoring just how violently it was shaking.

" _Colliquefacium_ ," she muttered and she watched in awe as the shimmer just seemed to melt away. Without saying anything the two other dragon tamers stepped over where the charms would have been and slowly began to walk towards the oak tree. They placed the meat just where it needed to be and slowly backed out of the enclosure.

" _Indurescum_ ," Hermione said, pointing her wand to where the charms were once Lloyd and Mia had stepped onto the path and she watched as the shimmer reappeared.

"Well done, Hermione, that was perfect. The best I've ever seen someone do it on their first go," Lloyd said clapping her on the back. Hermione let out a sigh of relief and suddenly began to relax. Once she had done one, she knew she could do more. Over Lloyd's shoulder, she watched Eilidh sink down to her knees by the meat and begin to eat the meat. This morning, her scales gave off more of a golden shine in the rising sunlight truly emphasising her magnificent beauty.

"You had better get going, Hermione. Just follow the path around until you see Sam and Matthew," Mia added as she caught the confused look on Hermione's face. Hermione smiled at them before turning around and following the path that led her through the dragon enclosure.

Hermione put her food down and sat down. She was exhausted and it wasn't even midday yet. The feeding had taken just over two hours, there had been problems in both the Norwegian Shortsnout and the Hungarian Horntail enclosures. She'd got lost by taking the right turning instead of the left before the Russian River Dragon and then the Georgian Greenfall never appeared for her food so she, Ralph and Kieran had had to check on her to make sure she was OK. It turned out she was sleeping, something that Ralph told her was very unusual so they moved her to a nearer enclosure so she could be regularly checked. After the feeding, Hermione was then instructed to stock up all the food for feeding in the afternoon, which meant a lot of walking and levitating disgustingly smelling meat from one end of the reserve to the other. But Hermione hadn't minded, she knew she was likely to be doing the runt of the work for a while until she found her feet. She was still amazed at the feeding process, and ever so much confused about the whole process. She made a mental note to ask someone about it.

* * *

Hermione looked up from her salad as four people sat down around her.

"Good morning?" Mia asked as she began to eat her chicken.

"Yes, it was very good thank you," she replied as she registered it had been her, Lloyd, Jack and Charlie who had sat down.

"What did you have to do after the feeding? We didn't see you about for a while," Jack asked through a large mouthful.

"I was restocking the meat from the store room," Hermione told them sighing a little. Jack groaned and Hermione questioned why.

"He shouldn't have done that," the Scot replied.

"No, it really wasn't that bad," Hermione said defensively.

"That's not the point, Hermione-" Mia started but she stopped quickly after receiving a look from Charlie.

"What? Please tell me what the problem is. I work here now so I kinda need to know about whatever's going on," Hermione pleaded at the other dragon tamers. The four of them exchanged a look of apprehension and then Lloyd nodded.

"Fine," Jack said, "but I'm not going to be the one telling you." He stood up and cleared away his food and didn't come back.

"They were really close friends," Charlie said as he watched Jack head out of the canteen.

"Who?" Hermione questioned.

"Jack and um…Dan," Mia muttered before piling food into her mouth, something that reminded Hermione of the other Weasley children.

"Dan's currently on probation and John thought that restocking all the meat would be a good way to teach him a lesson," Charlie said taking a deep breath. "So you see how he shouldn't have made you do that when it's his job, and punishment? He shouldn't have made you do his dirty work." Hermione sat there, a little confused.

"Why…why is he on probation?" Hermione asked tentatively.

"He was caught trying to poison Eilidh," Lloyd said so quietly Hermione almost didn't catch it.

"What? How on earth is he still here? Surely he should have been fired?" Hermione almost shouted.

"Hermione, shhh," Mia said.

"That's the corruption of the leadership here for you," Charlie said at the same time.

"Good lunch?" Dan asked as Hermione appeared in the main tent half an hour later.

"Yeah," she said shortly, wanting to communicate as little as possible with Dan. She had only been working for a morning but her suspicions had already been raised about this particular dragon tamer and wanted as little to do with him as possible.

"Great," he responded with a smile. "Now, this afternoon, I'm going to ask you to clean out all the empty hatching enclosures. Once you've done that if you wouldn't mind making an inventory of all the dragon potions over then and by then it should be time for afternoon feeding, which you'll be able to help with again. you'll do exactly the same as what you did this morning. Sound OK?"

"All good," she muttered, having a feeling that the cleaning of the hatching enclosures may have been another of his 'punishments' that he had handed down to her to do.

"Great, I'll see you later then," he said happily before strolling off away from the main tent and all the enclosures. Hermione watched him for a while, wondering what he was up to but when he turned down the path towards the yurts she turned her attention back to the jobs

* * *

The cleaning out of the hatching enclosures didn't prove to be so bad. They were quite small and only two of the six were currently unoccupied so it barely took her an hour to clean them out and refill them with straw. She was also kept company by Jack who was on hatching duty, which basically required him to sit in the hatching tent watching all of the eggs to see if they would hatch. He let her ask lots of questions and explained how the hatching at the reserve worked and what happened to the young dragons once they hatched.

 _"We keep them in the hatching tent for 48 hours to make sure everything's good with their health and then we send them to the youngling's area for a while where they're looked after before either being put back into the reserve at four months either with their mother but mostly in an area with other younger dragons until they reach a more mature age at about three or four. If they're sent to another reserve we tend to wait for eight to 10 months or until they're at least 18 months if they are put back into the wild."_

Taking the inventory was boring, however, and unfortunately had no one to keep company. She thought she had made it through and would be able to do something a bit more exciting for a few hours before feeding but Dan found her and got her to fill out the inventory in the medi-tent.

* * *

Finally, 5:30 arrived and Hermione found herself outside Eilidh's enclosure ready to help Lloyd and Mia put her food under the tree. She felt nervous but no way near as nervous as she felt this morning. She had done it all perfectly this morning and she was going to liver up to her expectations and do it all perfectly again this evening. And everything did, at least until she got to the Russian River Dragon's enclosure. She spotted the gorgeous, black and green dragon in the corner of the enclosure staring intently at her, Zack and Ben.

"Is it a good idea to go in given the way she's looking at us," she asked quietly just before raising her hand. The two men followed Hermione's eyes and spotted the well-camouflaged dragon.

"Hmm…Ksenia's never like this. She's always asleep at this time and doesn't tend to eat for another few hours," Ben muttered.

"What should be do?" Hermione asked curiously as she tried to read the looks of the tamers' faces.

"We won't be going in, that's for certain," Zack said shaking his head.

"No, it'll be too dangerous. She's got one of the worst tempers and is not someone you want to cross, ever," Ben added. "Her fire will do some serious damage."

"OK, so we won't feed her yet. She doesn't eat for a while so it won't be as if she's missing anything. We'll come back in an hour or so and hopefully be able to feed her then. If not, well, I'm not sure," Zack said heaving the two sheep carcasses into the plastic bin next the wards. He put a lid over the meat before wiping his hands on his trousers.

* * *

Just over an hour later Hermione found herself back in the main tent standing between Zack and Ben having been unsuccessful in feeding the Russian River Dragon for the second time.

"There's only one thing left," Zack said, sounding frustrated.

"What's that?" Hermione asked, intrigued by what they were going to do to feed the dragon.

"We fly over the top of her enclosure and drop the food down," Ben answered. Hermione stared at them.

"And that works?"

"We don't like to do it because it can make the dragon very angry and confused but it's better that than a starving one," Zack admitted summoning three brooms, handing one to Ben and passing one to Hermione, who didn't reach out to take it.

"Um…I'm going to give this one a skip," she said quietly blushing a bit and not looking at Zack.

"You'll be fine Hermione, they're not going to harm you," Zack said pressuring the broom towards her. Hermione looked up into his deep blue eyes and could see the passion firing inside of him but she shook her head.

"Sorry, but I don't fly," she said quietly, embarrassed by her admission. Zack didn't even flinch at her comment and to her surprise gave her a smile.

"I wasn't a flyer before I arrived either and now I can't live without it. Don't worry, I'll let you off this once but we'll be getting you on a broom before the month is out," he grinned. Hermione couldn't help but smile back.

"We'll see, I have an irrational fear of heights."

"That's nothing, you won't be going that high and we'll build it you up slowly. I promise everything will be fine. There's no greater feeling than floating in the air," Zack said wistfully and for the first time in her life Hermione actually considered to take a broom and kick off from the ground. But she wasn't ready quite yet so she wished the tamers luck and headed back to her yurt, exhausted and ready for bed.

* * *

 **A/N: I hope you liked it, please do leave a review - I appreciate every single one of them 3**


	3. Chapter 3 - Romanian Butterbeer

**Enjoy the new chapter, please leave your thoughts & what you want to happen!**

 **\- HermionesPolyjuice**

 **Chapter 3 – Romanian Butterbeer**

The rest of the week flew by filled with excitement and exhaustion. Hermione had worked from 6:30 am until 7 in the evening every day and was glad when she reached Friday evening and had the rest of the weekend off. She had known the job was going to be exhausting but she hadn't been quite prepared for this.

She unlocked the front door into her room a little after 8:30 that Friday evening ready to collapse into bed with a good book and a large glass of wine. She pulled off her clothes and climbed into the shower and washed off the mud and sweat that had collected during the day. It had been the hottest day of the week and according to Charlie it was only going to get hotter as they got further into July and August. Hermione got out of the shower and wrapped herself in a towel, shaking her wet air so it fell messily around her face. She trudged out of the bathroom and stopped in her tracks. Standing at the end of the hall, leaning against the front door was none other than Charlie Weasley.

"Ah I thought I heard the shower turn off," he said looking up with a smirk. "Why so surprised, Hermione? Not my fault you were silly enough to leave your door unlocked. Plus I needed to ask you something but you disappeared after dinner so I didn't catch you." Hermione didn't miss his eyes running up and down her body as he spoke. She raised her eyebrows at him and coughed loudly. His eyes snapped back to her face smiling broadly.

"Can it wait for me to get changed?" she asked suspiciously.

"Of course. I shall make myself at home," he said with a wink. Hermione rolled her eyes but headed towards her bedroom. She collapsed onto the bed, her heart racing and her face a little flushed. She was confused by her reaction. Never had she reacted like that because of Charlie. But never had she stood a few metres away from him in nothing but her smallest towel. Deciding to ignore it she sat back up and looked into her wardrobe, the doors still open from when she was in a rush this morning. What to wear? Should she go classy or comfy? What was she on about, it was a Friday night and all she truly wanted to put on were her pyjamas? Hermione groaned and slapped herself across the face bringing her out of a state of delusion. She stood up and pulled on a pair of navy shorts and an old Gryffindor overly large Quidditch jumper. She quickly towel-dried her hair, put on a little mascara and slipped on her flip-flops. She quickly hung up her towel in the bathroom, sprayed a little bit of perfume on and headed back out to her living room where she found Charlie slouched on the sofa, one leg hanging over the end and the other off the edge.

"Comfortable are we?" Hermione asked from the hallway.

"Yup," Charlie responded with a smile, turning his head to examine Hermione. "Nice jumper."

"Thanks," Hermione responded her face blushing a slight pink colour. "You wanted to ask me something?"

"Yes I did." Charlie swung his legs over to sit on the sofa as a normal person would. "On a Friday, Jack, Lloyd, Mia and myself all tend to go down to Hoghilag to let our hair down, relax and have a few pints. Would you care to join us?" Hermione stood there, a little stunned. Had Charlie just asked her out to join him, and the other dragon tamers of course, for a drink? How could she possibly be considered on their level?

"Umm…I guess so?" she replied although it appeared more of a question than an answer.

"Great, we shall be back in20 minutes to pick you up," Charlie said standing up and clapping his hands. He made his way to the door and let himself out.

"Oh and we tend to go smart casual, the only opportunity to dress up y'know," Charlie added just before he closed the door behind him. Hermione's heart sunk a bit. 'Smart casual' was always the worst, more smart or more casual, who knew. She hurried back to her bedroom and flung open the doors of her wardrobe and looked inside. To no surprise nothing jumped out at her as suitable to wear tonight. Hermione let out a groan and switched on her radio, which started playing some Tchaikovsky Swan Lake.

Swinging her hips to the music Hermione pulled out the three skirts she had brought to Romania; a black mini denim one, a long summers' blue one and a short navy bodycon one. It was a hot evening so the blue one with its flimsy chiffon-esque fabric would be the most ideal. After a 10-minute deliberation she matched it was a white lace crop top showing off just a little bit of her toned midriff and a pair of sandals. She slipped into the bathroom to sort out her hair and make-up.

Twenty minutes later, just as Hermione heard the front door open, again with no knock, she appeared from the bathroom with a light dusting of eye shadow and blusher and her hair put into slight curles which she pinned back off her face but let it hang down her back.

"Do you ever knock?" she asked Charlie, who was now sporting a pair of beige chinos and deep purple shirt. Hermione didn't fail to notice he'd left potentially one too many buttons undone and she was getting a nice view of the top of his chest. She blushed slightly when she caught sight of the very strong looking and defined pectorals and sincerely hoped she was far enough away for Charlie not to catch her cheeks go pink. But Charlie didn't respond. In fact his eyes traced her body up and down, he mouth slightly agape.

"You look stunning," was all he managed to get out when Lloyd snapped his fingers in front of the red-head's eyes to bring him back to his senses.

"Just get used to it, Hermione. I can't remember the last time he ever knocked at mine," Jack said, the green shirt matching his eyes perfectly.

"No, he's definitely walked in on me almost naked before," Mia added with a smile. Mia almost looked unrecognisable. Her hair wasn't tied up in a messy bun but fell around her face to her shoulders. She wasn't covered in mud and she showed off incredibly long, tanned legs under a short red dress. "Nice skirt by the way. I've got the exact same one in black and was very close to wearing it tonight so I'm glad I didn't cos there's no way I would have pulled it off as well as you do." Hermione blushed once again, this time hoping her blusher hid it at least a little bit as she reached the party of 4 by the front door.

"Shall we head then?" Jack asked. There was a murmur of agreement and they all filed out of Hermione's yurt and headed towards the camp and out towards the small Romanian village of Hoghilag.

"A pint of Romania's finest Butterbeer, and the best one you'll have tasted, for m'lady," Charlie announced placing a tankard of butterbeer in front of Hermione half an hour later. They had decided to go to their favourite pub, _The Dragon's Lair_ and it was already making quite the impression on Hermione. It was fairly old and quite hidden down an alley so not the busiest of pubs. The décor was interesting but it wasn't hard for Hermione to understand why it was her fellow dragon tamers' favourite pub what with the dragon egg shells, paintings and teeth, yes teeth, lying around. The drinks were all named after dragons and the glasses all had dragons etched onto them. It was dragon crazy. But Hermione liked it.

"Why thank you." Hermione shuffled around the booth and found her sandwiched between Jack and Charlie.

"So, Hermione, why dragons?" Mia asked after they had all taken large swigs from their Butterbeers. Charlie was right, it was the best Butterbeer Hermione had tasted.

"Because she wanted to spend time getting to know the favourite Weasley boy," Charlie said with a smirk. Unfortunately for Hermione she had taken a sip at just the wrong time and found herself choking on some Butterbeer. Charlie reached round and hit her on the back to help her splutter.

"Thanks," Hermione coughed. Charlie smiled at her and left his hand rested on her back for a fraction too long.

"Well long story short I finally passed the law for the freedom of house elves last year and felt very underwhelmed by everything else my job offered so decided to go for something that would challenge me and give me some excitements and dragons seemed the way forward," Hermione explained.

"Sounds logical," Jack said with a snigger that resulted in an elbow in the ribs from Hermione.

"What were all your reasoning's then?" Hermione asked, taking a slurp out of her tankard.

"Well, Charlie pretty much forced me out here," Jack replied as he rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on, we all know you loved dragons more than I did," Charlie laughed.

"Hardly. I didn't bring a soft dragon toy called Draggie over to Romania now did I?" Charlie blushed bright scarlet at Jack's comment. This time it was Mia's turn to choke on her Butterbeer. Hermione was shaking with laughter and Lloyd was silently crying.

"Sorry, what?" Lloyd was finally able to ask, his eyes wide and mouth agape. Charlie buried his face into his hands.

"Oh and didn't Mummy Weasley send you your female dragon toy called Dragina after you forgot her?" This was just too much for Lloyd, Mia and Hermione who were almost literally 'rolling on the floor laughing' with tears rolling down their cheeks.

It was a good five minutes before the three of them were able to calm down and regain their composure enough to see Charlie threatening Jack.

"I cannot believe you said that. I thought we were friends," Charlie growled through gritted teeth. Hermione was now unable to look at Charlie the same way and was relieved when Mia announced it was her round.

"I'll help," Hermione said jumping up and clambering over Charlie and joining Mia at the bar.

"So, you and Charlie, eh?" Mia asked after placing the order of five Butterbeers.

"What?"

"Oh come on, I may not have known you for even a week yet but I have noticed the looks exchanged between you and a certain redhead," Mia said with a smile.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Hermione responded but her cheeks turning pink may have given her away somewhat.

"Hmm…suit yourself," Mia commented levitating the tankards and directing them in front of her towards the booth the boys were sitting at. Hermione waited at the bar for a few moments going over what Mia had just said. Was it really that obvious? Did she really look at Charlie 'that way'? What even was 'that way'? Hermione shook her head and ignored the comments. There was nothing, and she meant nothing, going on between her and Charlie. He was Ron's older brother for Merlin's sake. They hadn't been broken up for a year yet so even if she wanted something with Charlie it was definitely too soon. Wait what? She didn't want anything with Charlie. She definitely didn't. Or did she? She shoved the thoughts right to the back of her head and joined the other dragon tamers ready to get suitably drunk.

"Everything OK?" Charlie whispered as Hermione sidled past him into the booth. She felt a shiver run down her spine as his breath tickled her ear. She decided not to answer with words but rather nodded her head and smiled at him.

"How's the first week been, Hermione?" Lloyd asked after a while.

"Actually really good, thanks Lloyd. Not quite what I was expecting but so much better. I've still got a lot to learn and I'm so excited to learn it all," Hermione answered eagerly. She could have gone on, everyone noticed the excitement in her eyes, but rather than boring everyone to bed she stopped then.

"If you're anything like what Charlie has described about you you'll probably have learnt it all in a month and be promoted to head tamer before any of us," Jack said with a laugh. For what felt like the hundredth time that evening Hermione blushed pink. She took a sip of Butterbeer to avoid saying anything and was relieved when Charlie interrupted the silence.

"Did you lot hear about the new dragons coming to the reserve sometime next month?"

"No, what's this?" Jack inquired, confused as to why he hadn't been aware of the arrival of a new dragon. Something like this was pretty big and the planning must be immense so he was surprised he hadn't known about it.

"Yeah the reserve in Peru is closing down, I don't know the detail though, so they're having to send all their dragons to various reserves around the world. They're sending us a Hebridean Black, Royal Bronze, Catalonian Fireball and a Scandinavian Sharpwing," Charlie told the eager table.

"A Royal Bronze? They have one, bloody hell," Lloyd breathed. Hermione recognised the name but with her hazy mind couldn't quite pinpoint the facts. She voiced this concern to the others.

"The Royal Bronze is the rarest dragon with only 3 in existence all in different reserves but no one knows in which one to avoid poachers finding out so the fact that one's coming here is, well, pretty spectacular," Mia explained to the new dragon-tamer.

"Why four? That seems like a lot, surely they didn't have that many to send four to every reserve in the world," Jack finally voiced the question that had been plaguing Hermione's thoughts. She just couldn't see how they would even be able to house four more dragons.

"Well, apparently the Canadian, American, Australian, Swedish, Russian and Japanese ones are all full and refuse to take any so that leaves what this one, the ones in New Zealand, South Africa, Botswana, Brazil, Spain, Mongolia and Thailand to take in all the dragons and it doesn't help that the Peru reserve was the largest in the world so I think we're all getting three or four. No idea how we're going to get any space to keep them though, and there's no way John's going to have got the extra land we need," Charlie sighed. Being at the reserve for only 5 days and Hermione had already learnt that no one in the senior management was to be trusted and that they were severely disliked by every other employer, bar maybe two or three.

"Do you know why they're closing?" Hermione asked, her questions slightly slurred under the volume of butterbeer consumed.

"No I don't and I don't expect we will ever know. The one in Kazakhstan just randomly closed about two years ago and still no one knows why," Charlie explained looking straight into Hermione's eyes. Hermione felt her heart flutter at intensity in his blue eyes and she knew there were few things Charlie wanted than to get to the bottom of the problems in the dragon business.

The five of them stayed at _The Dragon's Lair_ for a good while longer, making their way through the Butterbeer and chatting happily. Hermione learnt a great deal about each of the dragon tamers and became aware that Charlie, Lloyd and Jack and even Mia were able to drink copious amounts of alcohol and not seem too drunk whereas she found herself feeling very lightheaded and happy after just a couple of pints.

"Are you alright?" Charlie whispered in Hermione's ear a while later. Hermione had drifted away from the conversation and had been running through her thoughts about the new dragons and her first week of work.

"Fine, just thinking I may need to go home soon," she replied with a smile. Just by looking at her eyes, Charlie knew she was completely sloshed and she was in need of water, food, a sobering potion and bed.

"Good, because we're about to leave," Charlie responded. He promptly downed the remains of his drink and announced it was time for bed especially as Jack and Mia were on duty tomorrow morning. It was only then that Lloyd had noticed Mia begin to fall asleep on his shoulder and agreed it was time to get back. Everyone finished their drinks and got to their feet, Hermione feeling rather unsteady and grabbed onto the back of Charlie's shirt to make sure she had her balance. Upon feeling something on the back of his shirt Charlie turned around and then smiled at the sight of a drunken Hermione holding onto him. She caught his eye, blushed and immediately let go.

They had barely made it out of the alley before Charlie knew Hermione wasn't going to be making it back to her bed on two feet.

"Here, climb on," he said to her bending down in front of her gesturing for her climb onto his back. Hermione would have declined but even she was aware at how unsteady she was and clambered up wrapping her legs around his waist and arms around his neck. Charlie loved the feeling of her body against his and felt his heart begin to flutter at their closeness. Trying to ignore it he engaged himself in a conversation with Jack about the Quidditch World Cup beginning in a few weeks. Lloyd and Mia had darted off ahead, most likely to have some fun by themselves in bed so it was just Charlie and Jack walking back together.

Jack bade them goodnight as they passed his yurt and Charlie continued the few more metres to Hermione's front door. Expecting her to slide off his back when he stopped Charlie was surprised when there was no movement. He turned his head slightly and couldn't help but smile at the sight of Hermione's sleeping face resting on his shoulder. She looked so peaceful and the last thing Charlie wanted to do was wake her up so he let himself into her yurt and carried her down the corridor to her bedroom. He carefully unwrapped her legs and arms from around him and laid her on the bed. He knelt down and unbuckled her sandals and slipped them off before pulling her wand out from the waistband of her skirt. He laid it down on the bedside table and then covered Hermione's sleeping body with a light sheet, the night too hot for the duvet. He quickly wrote a note and left it next to her wand accompanied with a sobering potion, a hangover cure and a glass of water. Satisfied, he left her yurt and trudged over to his own where he collapsed on top of his own bedcovers still fully clothed and drifted into sleep filled with dreams that made him incredibly happy.

 **(A/N: hope you enjoyed it, sorry it was a little short! Please let me know what you think, any review is hugely appreciated!)**


	4. Chapter 4 - Ward Tampering

**Thanks to everyone who noticed a massive flaw about Hermione's parents - that's the problem when I only write every few weeks or so, I forget what I've got already, anyways I've fixed that now and am about to add the next chapter!**

 **\- HermionesPolyjuice**

* * *

 **Chapter 4 – Ward Tampering**

Hermione awoke on Saturday morning with a splitting headache, severe nausea and to the smell of waffles. She let out a groan as she rolled over and became aware that she was still wearing the clothes from the previous night with absolutely no recollection of getting home, the journey back or even leaving the pub for that matter. She closed her eyes, trying to simultaneously ignore the thumping of her head and remember the previous night. Deciding that she was going to fail at both she kicked her legs off her bed praying she could at least make it to the bathroom before she threw up. Thankfully she caught sight of the vials on her bedside table accompanied by a piece of parchment.

 _If you wake in the night take the blue sobering potion. If it's morning I would highly recommend the green potion, it's a hangover cure don't worry, and the water. I didn't want to wake you up when I got you back to give it to you then so sorry if you're not feeling too great this morning! I'll come check on you for breakfast later._

 _Charlie_

Hermione let out a sigh of relief as she grabbed hold of the smaller vial filled with some dodgy looking green potion and gratefully poured it down her throat. Almost instantaneously did she feel considerably better, the headache disappearing and the feeling of nausea being replaced by hunger. She drank the water and stood up deciding to have a shower first. On her way to the bathroom she heard the person in the kitchen humming to themselves. She distinctly recognised it as Fur Elise and smiled to herself, happy that it was just Charlie deciding to cook in her kitchen rather than his own.

After a quick shower, Hermione entered the kitchen wearing a pair of shorts and a tank top, her hair in a knot on the top of her head and her face flushed from the heat of the water.

"I'm assuming you're going to be letting yourself in here on your own accord for the entire time I work here," she said with a smirk helping herself to a mug of coffee and leaning against the work surfaces.

''Sounds about right. There's only so much of me Jack can take, I don't particularly fancy walking in on Lloyd and Mia shagging and you're the new meat so might as well get acquainted," Charlie responded with a wink. A simple gesture that made Hermione's heart flutter.

"I'm the new meat? What a lovely way of describing me," Hermione said rolling her eyes and following Charlie and his plate of waffles to the table.

"Take it as a compliment," Charlie responded with a wink piling some waffles onto the plat in front of Hermione.

"I will when you prove to me that it's a compliment," she sighed pouring maple syrup of the batter.

"Challenge accepted," Charlie laughed, kicking himself somewhat at how he was going to do that. The duo sat at the table in silence both enjoying the waffles, Hermione slightly more so as they helped cure the hangover even more. Once they had finished, Charlie banished the dirty crockery to the sink where they started to clean up on their own.

"So what plans does the fair witch have for this glorious day?" Charlie asked crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back comfortably in the chair.

"Not sure really. I was thinking of maybe going into Hoghilag to explore a bit and maybe get a present to send back to my parents. Other than that probably just reading," Hermione said thoughtfully. She hadn't really planned on doing anything much, mostly just taking it easy and enjoying have a weekend as she was well aware that within a few weeks she would be working most weekends with little rest.

"I am sure there is a certain wizard who would be more than happening to accompany you to the village if you so wished," Charlie said with a smile that made Hermione's heart flutter.

"Great, I shall go tell Jack we'll leave in 15," Hermione said standing up and preparing to leave. She was disappointed to see not even a flicker in his eyes. "Unless you're not too busy to join us."

"And that was the response I was waiting for," Charlie said with a chuckle. He stood up and walked towards Hermione on his way out of her yurt.

"I'll be round in 15 minutes," he whispered pecking her cheek with his lips before letting the door close behind him with a bang. Hermione stood there for a while; not moving as she took in how surprisingly soft his lips had felt against her skin. _Oh, snap out of it Granger. He's Ron's older brother, nothing can and nothing will happen between the two of you so stop wishing._ Slapping herself across the face, Hermione headed back to her room and opened her wardrobe with no clue what to wear.

Hermione wasn't in the least bit surprised when she emerged from her bedroom just over 15 minutes later to find Charlie lounging over her sofa, his nose buried in a book. She stopped in the doorway to see what he was reading.

"I'm surprised, _Les Miserables_ really?" she said with a laugh.

"It looks like a very well read book so I was intrigued," Charlie said with a smile taking not of the page he was on before carefully placing it back on the table next to him.

"It is one of my favourites," Hermione muttered to the floor. Charlie was suddenly standing next to her and she could feel the heat radiating off of him, not an unpleasant kind of heat but something that was surprisingly calming.

"Shall we head then?" he asked lending his arm for her to take. With a girlish giggle that made her cringe Hermione took her arm in his and let her lead her out in the bright, Romanian sun and towards the village.

"The last Sunday of every month there's a big concert in the church, with music mostly being played on the organ. It's mainly traditional Romanian music and operas from composers such as Eduard Caudella, Theodor Rogalski and the likes. It's truly spectacular but I haven't been able to come for a long time. You should definitely go next weekend if you can," Charlie said as he pushed open the doors to the Hoghilag church that stood in the centre of the small village.

"I would love that. Caudella's Dochia is one of my favourites. Hopefully you'll be able to get some time off and come with me. No doubt you'll know so much more about Romanian music than me and you'll be able to tell me all about it," Hermione said in awe as she took in the church. It wasn't overly large but very traditional with a large spire at the end where an old organ sat, the pipes spreading all the way to the top.

"Somehow I doubt I'll know more than you but I would very much like to accompany you," Charlie said with a smile.

"Great, I look forward to it," Hermione said as she took a few steps to where she could light a candle. She placed 5 Romanian Leus in the jar and took a candle. She lit it by hand and placed it next to one that was also shining brightly in the dingy corner of the church.

"I love you," she whispered quietly. "I miss you every day." A lone tear trickled down her cheek but she quickly dried her eyes before turning around to Charlie, not aware that he had heard her.

"What's next?" she tried to ask as cheerfully as she could but Charlie knew something else was going on.

"Ice cream," he responded trying to sound excited but couldn't escape the worry that was seeping through him.

"Suits me," Hermione said with a smile before allowing him to lead her out of the church and towards a small ice cream parlour down an alley opposite the church.

"Oh, Charlie this is wonderful," Hermione said excitedly as she licked at her ice cream a while later. They were sitting atop a large hill looking out over the small village and the countryside a far. Charlie didn't answer but rather looked over at the beautiful witch sitting next to him. The setting sun was catching her hair making it look more golden as it fell around her face, her skin getting darker by the day. She was radiant and all week he had watched excitement, admiration, love and so many other emotions fill the large, round chocolate eyes. Every time he caught sight of her, his breath hitched and his heart fluttered, something that had only ever happened to him once before. They sat in silence for a while, both going over their own thoughts and happily eating away at their ice cream that was _'even better than Italian gelato'_ according to Charlie.

"Hermione?"

"Hmm," she responded not looking at him.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You mean can you ask me something else?" she asked with a smirk. Charlie rolled his eyes.

"Don't feel you need to answer it but who was the candle for?" Charlie's voice faltered as he asked the question, feeling that perhaps he didn't know her quite well enough to ask such a personal question.

"My parents." Charlie had suspected it was for her parents but was confused as she was only just talking about sending them a present the day before, but his curiosity was soon answered.

"Not out of memory or anything but just love. We had such a good relationship when I was younger, I couldn't hide anything from them. And now, after what I did to them, I think there's just a bit of, I don't know, just something lacking. Maybe they don't trust me or something. Obviously, I still love them, and I would like to think they'd still love me, but I just want it to go back to what it was, you know?" Hermione sighed and Charlie looked over at his companion and saw the tears spill down her cheeks more freely now. He reached out and grasped her hand.

"Of course they still love you, Hermione. What you did was out of pure love and believe me when I say that you are the bravest witch I know. I don't know anyone who would have been able to do that. They're so proud of you and it's just taking a bit of time, but trust me before you know it everything will be back to how it was." Hermione looked over at Charlie and smiled weakly. She nodded, unable to form any words before turning her head back to watch the sunset, her tears glistening in the golden light. They sat there for a while, Hermione's hand still in Charlie's, both watching the sun get lower in the sky.

It didn't take Charlie long to realise that Hermione was beginning to shiver in the cool wind that was blowing their way on the top of the hill so he shook off his jacket and placed it around her shoulders. He swiftly shuffled in next to her and wrapped his arms around her slight body trying to block away some of the wind.

"Thanks," she muttered looking up at him. Their faces were so close together their noses almost touched and Charlie could see every single freckle adorning her nose and cheeks. Charlie had to try so hard to not reach down and press his lips to hers. They were just friends, that was all. Plus she was his brother's ex, and that was a no-go. So instead he reached his hand forward and brushed away a stray curl from her face and tucked it behind her ear. He felt her breathe out softly before turning back to watch the sky turn from yellow to red and finally to a deep indigo. But as they watched this time, Hermione rested her head on Charlie's shoulder and he rested his on top of hers, both very much at peace with the world.

However, the calm didn't last long and just as the sun fell behind the forest in the distance there was a deafening bang down to their right, right where the reserve sat.

"Oh my," Hermione whispered her neck snapping to see what the cause was. It was obvious within a second as a large, copper coloured dragon appeared in the sky. Charlie and Hermione both jumped to their feet, pulling out their wands relieved there were no muggles around them at the time. Charlie grabbed Hermione's hand and together they disapparated with a pop.

Hermione wobbled ever so slightly when they landed just outside the reserve but was held upright by Charlie. As soon as she was balanced they took off towards the reserve, their wands at the ready for anything that may need to be done.

"What happened?" Charlie panted as they reached the main tent in the centre of the reserve.

"Dunno but the wards broke and Eilidh got free. She's flown over towards the forest. We're sending a team out to get her." Charlie immediately summoned a broom and was about to jump on when Lloyd put his hand on his arm to stop him.

"You're not the right person for this Charlie, you and I both know that. You're too attached to her. You need to be here. You're the best person to find out what happened to the wards and make sure you fix them so it doesn't happen again. That's what you need to do, not going after Eilidh and burning down the entire forest in frustration and anger." Charlie looked like he was about to argue to Hermione stepped in.

"Charlie, I've only known your relationship with Eilidh for less than a week but I already know it would be reckless for you to go after her. You would end up doing something silly and get yourself, another tamer or even her killed. You won't be in the right frame of mind to ensure she made it back safely. Let's go and inspect the wards to find out what happened, it'll be better for you," she said soothingly as she absentmindedly brushed away his hair away from his eyes. Just by looking at her he knew she was being serious and wouldn't let him go after his favourite dragon.

"Alright," he mumbled and started walking to her enclosure. Hermione and Lloyd exchanged a look before Hermione hurried off after Charlie, eager to both learn more about the wards and barriers and also to keep Charlie's attention away from the endangered dragon.

A very long 40 minutes later and Charlie and Hermione emerged from the Regal Copper's enclosure, muddy and sweaty but smiling.

"That was amazing, how did you learn that?" Charlie asked beaming at his co-worker. He could have kissed her after what she had done. He had never seen magic like it and knew no one and no dragon would be able to escape the barriers she had set up. Hermione just shrugged.

"Just by reading some books," she muttered to the ground, blushing a little. She hadn't thought it was that impressive, but apparently Charlie thought differently.

"Well, it was bloody brilliant. You're one amazing witch," he said giving her shoulder a squeeze that sent a tingly feeling down her spine at the contact.

"How do you think she got out in the first place?" Hermione asked, trying to change the subject. Charlie's face turned grave.

"I don't know but she didn't get out by herself. Someone broke the barriers for her and the only people who know what they are and how to damage them work here and not even everyone here knows," he said grimly. Hermione knew exactly what he was saying. Someone, here, who worked on the Balaur Reserve had intentionally let a dragon out into the wild, whether that was so she could get freedom or for her to cause damage Hermione didn't know but it made her feel sick either way.

"Who would do such a thing?" she asked as she followed Charlie towards the main tent where they would wait with everyone for the team to bring her back to safety.

"Only the person who did it will know but it's sickening and I bloody well hope they get punished. One of the first things any tamer, or worker for that matter, is told when they arrive is that they are not to interfere with any of the wards and barriers and there would be severe repercussions if you did. Who ever it was did it intentionally and I'll bet my mother's life Dan had something to do with it," he finished with a growl.

"Charlie, whatever you think is fine just don't say it too loudly," she whispered quietly. Charlie didn't comment but his eyes narrowed in anger as he caught sight of the man so many workers disliked.

"Someone tampered with the wards. But they're fixed now and stronger than before, she won't be getting out soon," Charlie told the room, but mostly towards the head tamer, John. The faces of all the tamers in the tent mirrored Charlie's, even Dan, who was genuinely surprised or extremely good at acting, Hermione thought.

"Well, let it be known that whoever it was will not be getting away with it," John said harshly to the room.

They only had to wait another 20 minutes until they saw the large dragon strapped to a number of brooms and being flown towards her enclosure. Everyone in the tent quickly hurried over to the enclosures to watch as the tamers got the dragon safely to the ground in her own area. They quickly undid all of the ropes tying her up and left the enclosure, making sure the wards remained up.

"She was hiding in the caves before we were able to get to her, just a little coaxing a few spells and we managed to get her back, she's heavier than we thought though hence why we were so slow," the tamer, Hermione identified as Matthew said, wiping his brow clear of sweat.

"Good, well thank you everyone for being here so fast, even those not on duty," John added with a look towards Charlie and Hermione. "Now, I'm sure you lot want to know what happened. Charlie has told me that someone tampered with the wards and barriers to allow Eilidh to get out. We all know that the only people who know the ins and outs of the wards are standing in the room so until someone comes forward everyone will be questioned until this solved." John's eyes turned dark as he talked, and Hermione knew that despite people not liking him he was still going to solve this problem the proper way.

"Everyone, off to their yurts. People still on shift stay here so I can talk to you about what needs to happen now." John didn't need to repeat himself before everyone not on duty hurried out of the main tenet and down the path towards the yurts. Hermione found herself pilling into Charlie's yurt alongside Lloyd, Jack and Mia.

"It's got to be Dan," Charlie erupted before Hermione had even managed to shut the door.

"Don't be so quick to conclusions, Charlie," Hermione said walking over from the door and sitting down on the spare armchair.

"You don't know him Hermione," he said through gritted teeth.

"He is the only one who's done something like this before," Jack added.

"Why would someone do that though?" Mia asked interrupting Charlie before he could go on a rant about it definitely being Dan. Everyone shrugged.

"Maybe they wanted to scare the muggles?" Hermione suggested.

"Shit, the muggles," Charlie and Lloyd both shouted jumping to their feet and running out of the yurt, leaving the other three confused until it dawned on them a few moments later. Hermione, Mia and Jack leapt to their feet and followed the two boys towards the main tent.

* * *

 **(A/N: there you go - hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to review :)) )**


	5. Chapter 5 - New Wards

**Hope you enjoy the new chapter - so so sorry it's been forever, I've just had major writer's block, if anyone fancies lending a hand that would be amazing! Anyways, hope you like it!**

 **-HermionesPolyjuice**

 **Chapter 5 – New wards**

"Thank Merlin we got there so quickly," Lloyd let out sigh as he slid into a booth at The Dragon's Lair taking a swig of his butterbeer.

"Thank Merlin for Hermione to think of it," Charlie added wiping the foam from his top lip.

"I didn't actually think about that," Hermione said, blushing a bit at the compliment.

"Nonetheless, can you imagine the chaos if we hadn't managed to wipe their memories?" Mia asked making everyone shudder at the thought.

"Don't really want to," Jack muttered. The five tamers sat at the booth in silence, each sipping at their butterbeers, Hermione getting through hers considerably slower than the others after the previous night.

"So what did you guys get up today?" Hermione finally asked, somewhat fed up with sitting in silence. Although it was nice, she always felt that going out for drinks should be upbeat and full of conversation.

"Not much, floo called my family, slept a lot and even cleaned the kitchen," Jack said a little wistfully.

"You cleaned?" Mia asked shocked making Hermione figure that wasn't something Jack did frequently.

"I tried, gave up after just the kitchen though," he responded with a laugh.

"Shock," Mia said rolling her eyes.

"What about you guys, get up to much?"

"Oh, you don't ask what Lloyd and Mia did on a day off," Charlie warned.

"Why not?" Hermione asked confused why she couldn't ask an innocent question.

"Because the answer will be shagged all day and then they would frequently go into detail," Jack said laughing at the look on Hermione's face at his comment.

"Ew, no thanks. I shan't ask them again then," she responded her face wrinkled at the thought.

"We actually didn't shag today, I'll have you know. We went for a lovely walk in the hills and picnic by the waterfall," Mia said indignantly but with a wink.

"The day's not over yet, love," Lloyd said with a smirk.

"That is true," Mia responded with a broad grin before downing the rest of her drink and standing up, offering her hand to her boyfriend. Lloyd laughed but also finished his butterbeer and taking his girlfriend's hand.

"See you on Monday," he said with a wink and with a laugh they hurried out of the pub. Hermione couldn't help but let out a laugh at the behaviour of the couple. Even being on the reserve for just a week and she could already tell they were madly in love.

"So what did you guys get up to today then?" Jack asked after a few moments of silence.

"Charlie showed me around Hoghilag," Hermione responded sending a grateful smile at the red-head sitting on her left.

"Ooh, nice. Did he tell you about the Sunday market?"

"No?"

"Oh, well there's basically a big market every other Sunday in the town square, a bit like a farmer's market back in the UK. Nothing special but it's quite nice," Jack said with a shrug.

"I might check it out tomorrow then."

"Do you need any company?" Charlie asked.

"Only if said company would want to spend a day with me," Hermione said, her lips turning up in to a smirk.

"Oh, said company would love that a lot," Charlie responded with a wink that made Hermione's heart skip a beat.

"Perfect." A silence fell among the three tamers, but this time Hermione didn't feel the need to engage the two men in conversation and sat there sipping at her butterbeer until they decided to head back to bed before it got too late.

"Oh look Charlie! It's beautiful," Hermione squealed running over towards a stall that sold miniature dragon statues. Charlie rolled his eyes but followed the animated witch. They had been walking around the market all morning, stopping at every stall so Hermione could peruse the items for sale and talk to the owners. It turned out that a fair number of villagers could speak a reasonable amount of English and be able to hold a sensible conversation, something that delighted Hermione but infuriated Charlie just a bit.

"Do you think my parents would like that or would they prefer the photo frame at the earlier stall?" she asked ogling at a mini Regal Copper that had cuddled up small to sleep but Charlie knew would stretch its wings soon.

"How am I to know? They're your parents," he said, trying not to sound irritated

"Right, yes. Um…you know what I think I'm going to get the photo frame and get a photo of Eilidh or something at the reserve to send them," she said thoughtfully. Charlie let out a small groan. He thought Hermione was great but that was before he went around a Romanian market with was driving him slightly insane.

"Great, and then can we get some food? I'm starving."

"Yes of course. I really want to try some of the mince rolls," she gushed pulling out her purse as they manoeuvred themselves back to the stall selling the photo frames.

"Not until you've tried the cabbage rolls, they're so much better," Charlie said as Hermione paid for the frame. Hermione pulled a disgusted face.

"I think I'll let you keep them yourself," she responded wrinkling her nose as Charlie led her towards the food area of the market.

20 minutes later found Charlie and Hermione sat on a bench by the fountain in the middle of the town square with a couple of bags of traditional Romanian food.

"Here, have one of the cabbage rolls," Charlie said handing Hermione.

"It's not going to bite," he added with a laugh after spotting Hermione's look and hesitation.

"I know that. It just looks a bit…um…odd," she said but nonetheless took the roll from Charlie and watched as he picked up his own one and bit it in half.

"What's in it again?"

"It's minced pork, tomato and bacon wrapped in cabbage. Stop worrying and just eat it," Charlie said exasperatedly. Hermione took a bite and was pleasantly surprised at the flavour. The thyme certainly added that extra dimension that made the roll edible. Satisfied that Hermione had enjoyed it, Charlie handed her the mince roll next.

"It's basically a meatball but flavoured with traditional Romanian herbs, cimbru and leustean. Or summer savory and lovage as the Brits know them as."

They spent the next half hour trying different Romanian foods and finding out what Hermione liked (Raudati soup) and what she didn't. She had cursed Charlie once he had told her that the Drob was made from lamb organs after she had eaten it and had sworn she would never be touching it again.

"Thanks for coming with me today, Charlie. Sorry if I was a bit of a pain," Hermione added as an afterthought as Charlie dropped her off outside her yurt.

"You're never a pain, Hermione," he said with a smile. "Just a little, how shall I say it, fanatical." Hermione snorted.

"Right, I'll bear that in mind for next time."

"Oh, so there's going to be a next time?" Charlie asked with a smirk causing Hermione to blush profusely.

"Well…um, there…um doesn't have to be," she stammered.

"I would love there to be a next time," Charlie said. He bent down and planted a gentle kiss on her cheek before turning on his heel and heading over to his own yurt, the spring in his step not going unnoticed by Hermione. Hermione stood there, her cheek tingling from where his lips had made contact and her heart hammering in her chest. She felt like a silly 13-year-old girl who'd just seen her crush. Wait what? Her crush? She didn't have a crush on Charlie. No most definitely not, he's Ron's brother. There's no way she could be attracted to him. Oh but those muscles and the piercing blue eyes and the calming presence he had and…and well everything about him. Shaking herself out of her reverie, Hermione unlocked the front door, entered her yurt and promptly collapsed onto the sofa trying to work out what was going on with Charlie. She tried, and failed but refused to accept she had failed, to convince herself he wasn't attracted to Charlie Weasley in any way.

John had organised an entire reserve meeting on Monday morning at 6 am, much to Hermione's displeasure as she heard her alarm go off at 5:15. She let out a groan and aimlessly swung her arm to hit the button to stop the load buzzing. She would very happily have curled back up and slept for another few hours but that was out of the question. Another groan but this time accompanied with a swing of her legs off the bed and onto the plush teal carpet. Still feeling half asleep, Hermione grabbed her towel and headed to the shower in an attempt to wake her up.

Just over half and hour, Hermione locked up her yurt and started up the path back to the main tent. The sun was beginning to rise above the trees and she could already tell it was going to be a very hot day. She reached the apple trees and snagged one from a lower branch and happily ate it as she headed to the noise.

"Morning, Hermione," Dan greeted her happily as she pushed open the flap to the tent.

"Hi, Dan," Hermione said, no such emotion in her voice.

"Did you have a good weekend? Get up to anything fun?" he enquired.

"Um…not really, just a bit of exploring," she said, trying to subtly eye the crowd behind him in an attempt to find someone she would rather talk to.

"Oh that is lovely. Did you go into Hoghilag?" Dan asked, obviously trying to make conversation.

"Yes, it's very nice."

"Yes, it is. Did you try the ice cream from _Mele Savoare_?"

"Um…yes, I think it was from there." Hermione could see Dan open his mouth no doubt to ask another question but let out a sigh of relief when she heard a familiar voice come form behind her.

"Ah, Hermione. We wondered where you were. We went to get you from your yurt and you'd already gone." Hermione turned around and smiled at the four dragon tamers she was beginning to consider her friends.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't realise you'd drop by," she responded. Charlie smiled at her and led her away from Dan and his interrogation.

"Thank you," she said turning to the others.

"Quite alright, I hope you weren't being questioned by him for too long," Charlie said with a smile.

"Not too long," Hermione admitted, "but long enough." Before a conversation could ensue, John walked into the tent, carrying a clipboard and looking very business like. He was even wearing a suit, and judging by the look on Charlie's face, Hermione assumed that was not a usual form of attire.

"Good morning everyone. I do apologise to have gotten some of you up so early but it was a matter of severe emergency and it was vital I spoke to you as soon as I could," he began and an anticipated silence fell among the employees of the Balaur Reserve. "Now, I am sure you all know what I am going to be talking to you all about and that's the escape of the Regal Copper from her enclosure at approximately seven o'clock on Saturday evening. Firstly, I must congratulate every single one of you who helped in retrieving her and getting her back to safety and also to anyone who wasn't on duty but still got here to provide assistance. Even despite everything, I have to say I was proud of you and you speed in attending to emergencies. It's something you're trained to do and I hope you all continue to apply that lesson in the future; hopefully it won't be needed again though.

"Now onto the serious business. For those of you who don't know Charlie Weasley and Hermione Granger spent over half and hour trying to deduce what happened. They reported back that someone had deliberately tampered with the wards around her enclosure, effectively allowing her to escape." There was an audible gasp followed by muttering among the tamers in the room as the head tamer informed everyone of this new information. John waited until silence fell before continuing.

"Thankfully, they were able to repair the wards and managed to strengthen even further. They don't know this yet but they will now be spending the better part of this week strengthening every single ward at every enclosure to ensure this doesn't happen again. I know everyone one of you is aware that it is only employees who know about the wards and how they can be removed or fixed. Someone in the room purposefully interfered with the wards around Eilidh to make sure she escaped. I don't know why or what that person, or people's, decisions where but let me tell you this. Whoever it was will be facing severe consequences. And by severe I mean firing, a public shaming, reports to the Romanian and British ministry and no doubt some time in Azkaban." An even louder silence filled the room.

"You may think, Azkaban is too harsh but I must stress upon you all the seriousness of the actions of this person, whether with serious intent or as a joke. You have the next 12 hours until 6 pm this evening to come forward, and if you don't we will have to go about it another way. We will find out who it was, and we will do anything to make sure we work this out so be warned, who ever did this will not be getting away with it." John finished his speech and looked around the tent. There was malice filled in his eyes and Hermione thought that perhaps he wasn't as bad as everyone made him out to be. He really seemed intent of figuring this mess out.

"On another note, we will be welcoming four new dragons from the reserve in Peru as they are closing due to staffing issues and disagreements with the ministry. The dragons will be arriving the middle of next week and I will be choosing a selected few over the next couple of days to help with preparing the reserve for their arrival," John added. There was an excited air that filled with tent.

"Sir, can I ask you what dragons?" a voice piped up from near the front. Hermione didn't even need to look to know it was Dan who asked the question.

"You may but I shan't be answering you. It'll be something you'll find out when they arrive, for their safety," John said sending a piercing look at the tamer who had asked the question.

"Right, now off to work, we've got a busy week. Everyone should know their rotations, and I'll get in contact with those I want on hand for the new dragons by the end of Wednesday." There was a loud commotion in the tent as John dismissed the meeting. Hermione could hear some people talking about the wards and others about the new dragons. She turned to Charlie, about to ask him a question when he interrupted her.

"We should probably go find out what we're doing about the wards," he said. She nodded and after telling the others they'd see them at lunch they hurried out of the tent and down the small path on the left. Hermione hadn't been down there, in fact she hadn't ever noticed it but she followed Charlie and realised that he was leading her to John's office.

It was a small hut up a small hill that overlooked the reserve. After being let in Hermione noticed it to be no bigger than her sitting room in her yurt, and contained a desk, some chairs and a few filing cabinets. Hermione caught sight of the view from the window and couldn't help but let out a gasp. It was magnificent. She hadn't realised that the dragon enclosures were all in a valley and from John's office she could see each and every enclosure and if she looked carefully could see a few of the dragons flying around in the sky.

"It's a pretty great spot you've got here," Hermione said.

"Yes, it is indeed. Means that I can see everything going on and if something goes wrong," John added. "Anyway, do take a seat." Charlie and Hermione shared a quick look before sitting down in the chairs opposite John.

"So I'm assuming you're here to ask about what you heard earlier, am I right?" The two tamers nodded and John let out a sigh before continuing.

"I don't want to risk what happened on Saturday happening again. And I trust you both 100% that you didn't tamper with the wards so I want you to do whatever you did to the wards around Eilidh to all of the other ones. I had a member of the ministry in yesterday to have a look and he was telling me that not only are they the strongest wards he'd ever seen but practically impossible to trace. And if you were able to trace them and identify them it would take even longer to learn how to tamper with them. I hate to have to have this kind of security up against my own employees but I'm not going to risk it so could you please do the same everywhere else?" Again, Charlie and Hermione nodded.

"Great, and when you're done can you set up four more enclosures. We're limited on space so they'll have to be a bit smaller. If you need then you can make the others also a bit smaller to accommodate them. But they're going to have to go there," he gestured to a rather small area on a map located on the wall next to his desk, opposite the window. "You'll know if you're making them too big and they go outside the boundary."

"With all due respect, John. I don't see how four new enclosures are going to fit in that space. That's hardly enough area for one dragon let alone four," Charlie interjected, his voice full of concern.

"I know it's not enough space, Weasley. But there's nothing we can do about it. We can't expand the reserve so we're just going to have to make do. I trust you both to use your initiatives and if it means making other enclosures smaller then so be it, just do it," the head tamer said, his voice harsh and strong and in a tone that meant there was no arguing so Charlie and Hermione said their thanks and quickly left the small hut. They walked in silence back down the small hill and it wasn't until they had made it through the other side of the main tent did Hermione voice the question that was plaguing both of their minds.

"How are we going to fit four more dragons in there? We're full. They should have declined the new ones coming until we had the space for them. It's cruelty."

"I know," Charlie said, his voice almost sounding strained. "But like John there's nothing we can do. If he has actually tried like he says he has, then there's definitely nothing that the two of us can do. We're just going to have to make each enclosure smaller by what, about an acre or so. It's not ideal but it's what we're going to have to do, we don't exactly have a choice." The duo continued in silence, passing the tamers who were preparing for the feeding, providing Jack, Lloyd and Mia with smiles. But after reaching the first enclosure, Charlie didn't lead Hermione along the path to the left but rather turned right and headed down a more unofficial path, mainly made by many treading feet. Hermione was learning more and more about the reserve every hour today and he almost dreaded to think how much more she needed to know. She opened her mouth to ask Charlie where it was he was taking her but decided to keep it a surprise and just followed him in silence.

It was only about 10 minutes, when they took a right and headed into a thicket of trees. A few more minutes and they were outside another small hut hidden away on the reserve. Hermione's curiosity couldn't be contained any longer.

"Where are we?"

"You'll see," Charlie said and after a complicated wave of his wand, he pulled at the door and held it open allowing Hermione in, who let out an audible gasp as her eyes adjusted to the dimly lit room

 **(A/N: hope you enjoyed it, and once again apologies it's been so long, hopefully I'll get the next chapter up soon! Please leave a review!)**


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